Worldwide Loss
by DemoniaZorra
Summary: Elizaveta wished she had told him before something like this happened; it wasn't only America that suffered a loss that day. PruHun. [REWRITTEN 2014] Still bad at summaries though...


Tears were streaming down Elizaveta's face as she stared at the TV screen in front of her. It showed the current situation in New York city, as a plane seemed to have purposefully struck one of the Twin Towers; the World Trade Centre. It began by smoking at the gaping hole the plane had made, before the pale grey turned into black and the smoke billowed in thick waves into the sky and city around it. News reporters hurriedly explained what they were seeing, as in the background people were screaming in terror, running away in any direction from the looming skyscraper in fear of it collapsing. It was serious news to be televised in Europe like this, and it only got worse as a second plane hit the other tower. There was no way to save the buildings now, as bright amber flames licked around the walls and consumed more floors that the planes hadn't even hit.

She pulled her knees up to her chest, gasping for breath in between the sobs that shook her body. Elizaveta cried for all of the people on the streets who had to witness such an event, for the thousands of people in the buildings desperately trying to escape before death, for the families and friends who would be affected by this tragedy. But most of all, she cried for her closest childhood friend, who was currently in one of the towers: Gilbert Beilschmidt.

The Prussian had gone to the USA on a business trip on behalf of his younger brother to work with the personification of America, Alfred. F. Jones. Elizaveta's heart sank as she imagined the pain Alfred was currently going through, as countries could feel major disasters. He was probably slumped over a desk, his hand clutching at his heart that tightened in his chest and left him with a feeling of not being able to breathe. She shook her head, trying to get rid of the mental image.

A loud, shrill sound cut through the noise of the TV, and Elizaveta turned to see her mobile vibrating on a table next to her and blasting out the theme from an upbeat anime, which seemed less than fitting. She tried to composer herself enough to answer the phone, and her heart skipped a beat when she saw the caller ID.

"Gilbert! A-are you okay? Oh God, please be alright." She practically screamed into the phone.

"I'm awesome at the moment." Gilbert replied with his trademark laugh. Elizaveta could hear loud screams of panic in the background of his call, and thought that the other people might not share his feeling. "I'm running down the stairs and getting the fuck outta here. What happened?"

His tone of voice sounded awfully calm, although she could hear a slight wavering towards the end of his sentence. That bastard had too much pride to sound scared, even in a situation like this.

"Two planes crashed into the towers." Elizaveta replied, trying not to start sobbing again.

"Well who the fuck would do that!" Gilbert shouted as more worry creeping into his voice.

"That doesn't matter you idiot. Just get-" Her words were cut of as the TV caught her attention and left her speechless. One of the towers slowly sank to the ground, letting a thick blanket of pale dust and debris fan out to suffocate the city.

"Holy shit…" Elizaveta's mouth fell open as the screams got louder both on the TV and through the phone. "GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!" she shrieked into Gilbert's ear, hearing only his rushed breathing to indicate that he was still there. She thanked God that he seemed to be in the second tower.

"I think I'm almost at the bottom, I can see the lower floors!" Gilbert's voice rose as the potential freedom approached him, but time was running out for the other building. "Look, if I don't make it out alive-"

"Don't say something like that, you survived dissolution and you can survive this." Elizaveta almost snapped at him. The Kingdom of Prussia couldn't end again. Not like this.

Something must have finally got to Gilbert as he really was crying now, and Elizaveta could barely make out his next words.

"If I don't get out, just know that I've always loved you! And always will, Eliza-" The call disconnected.

She sat there for some time, wide eyed and shaking, not moving the mobile from her ear and letting the monotonous hum of the ended call continue until it made her head hurt. Suddenly she snapped back into reality, and threw the phone as hard as she could against the wall, watching the plastic shatter into pieces. She screamed at the top of her lungs, not wanting to believe what was happening. If she hadn't glanced at the TV at that moment, she would have missed the small figures of humans jumping out of the windows of the second tower, soaring down the immense height to be killed on impact on concrete below. Elizaveta turned off the TV after the second tower fell into more debris, more screams, and more intense fire that produced a beacon of smoke, alerting the world of such a disaster. She hadn't even had the chance to say she loved him back.

Hours later, when she felt calm enough to move from the sofa where she had curled her body into a small ball and cried until she could no longer breathe, she had the strength to drag herself to the bathroom. The face in the mirror looked like a different person as she tried to splash cold water on it to reduce the redness. Her eyes were bloodshot and swollen from crying, and it hurt her even to blink, and all of her crying and left wet streaks down both of her cheeks and fallen onto her clothing. She tried to hold in another sob, not wanting to come to terms with the truth. He was dead. After all this time, he was really dead.

Days passed in the same fashion; not eating or sleeping, and refusing to turn on the TV or radio in case she heard any more bad news about what had happened. Although, late at night when she was sat in her kitchen with some coffee, she half wished that if she turned on the TV, she would catch a glimpse of that pale hair running from the collapsing towers. She remembered Roderich coming to visit near the beginning, where she promptly burst into tears again, clinging to her ex-husband as he stroked her hair. But she wished it was someone else that was so close to her in that moment.

He had noticed the smashed phone, still in pieces on the floor, and her main house phone which had been unplugged at the wall. No wonder he had such a hard time trying to contact her. Roderich had an idea a few days after returning to his house, and sent Elizaveta a new phone a week later, and gently asked her to check her voicemails on it, in case there was anything important she had missed.

She had agreed to his request after feeling guilty about spending so much time crying over Gilbert to a man she had once been married to, and she felt eternally thankful to him when her heart began to beat fast as she heard the oldest message that had been left on her phone. It was from Gilbert.

His breath was coming in uneven pants, and he still sounded extremely worried and worn out, but the background noise was much calmer. "_Hey Liz. I tried calling you when I reached the outside, but I couldn't reach your phone. I mean, mine had a reason to be unreachable, it just lost signal in a collapsing building, no big deal. You're so unawesome to have it turned off or something._" Gilbert laughed to himself, and Elizaveta quietly giggled along with the message, blinking back new tears that were daring to spill again. "_Just call me back when you get this I s'pose._"

The next message was from two days later. "_Hi again. You never called back, and I was starting to get worried, which is lame, I know._" His voice sounded much stronger in this. At least it didn't sound like he had any of the ash cloud in his lungs. "_Guess what though, I forgot to say when we came out into the ash everything was like white. It took hours for the guys helping clean up that I was albino and it wasn't stuck to me after we all washed off. What nerve they had!_" It seemed as though he had made friends with the escapees, going by all of the references to 'we'. "_Hope you actually call me back after this one. Maybe you're just creeped out by my confession, huh? I still love you, Liz._" The message ended with his regular laugh, and for the first time since the fall of the towers she felt a smile tug at the corners of her lips. It finally dawned on her that he was still alive. Still alive and okay, and he still loved her. Elizaveta felt her heartbeat speed up as her smile grew into a full grin, and she longed for the day when she could return Gilbert's feelings face to face.

A final message had been left only three days ago.

"_Sup Lizzy! I met up with Alfred and he's letting me fly home on the first plane that's allowed outta here. His private jet of course, ah it would be awesome to be a country again. He's recovering fine, if the others don't already know. His injuries were pretty bad when it happened._" Gilbert trailed off. Elizaveta supposed that America's health was the most important thing out of all of this mess and she made a mental note to call him as soon as possible. "_Anyway, see you soon. Love ya!_"

That was how Elizaveta found herself sat on the sofa again for almost a week straight, hardly daring to move in case she missed Gilbert at the door. Finally, an urgent knocking sounded and Elizaveta almost tripped over her dress as she rushed to answer it, sure of the person who was standing on the other side.

With a loud slam, the heavy oak door swung open to reveal Gilbert's grinning, albeit tired face. She swung her arms around him, holding on tightly and trying not to cry as she pressed her face on top of his shoulder and into his neck.

"I thought I'd lost you." She mumbled, as Gilbert leaned his head on hers.

"For a moment there, you did… That totally sounds like a movie quote… What is it from oh my god."

Elizaveta sighed, head-butting Gilbert's shoulder and muttered "Way to ruin the moment, Gil."

"Oh, I try."

Elizaveta finally pulled away from him, instead wrapping her arms around his neck. It was the first time she got a good look at his face, and realised he was even paler than usual, with large bags under his ruby eyes. The same lively spark still shot through them, which was a relief to her.

"So… are you gonna invite me in for some awesome food?" He grinned widely, and Elizaveta's heart fluttered at the sight of it. After years of secretly being in love with the arrogant Prussian, he had finally said what she always dreamed he would. So, before letting him eat, Elizaveta thought she should give him some credit for the confession. She stood on her tiptoes to press her lips against his, trying not to giggle in delight as he kissed back rather enthusiastically after realising what had happened.

When they broke away, Gilbert's grin got even wider, a slight blush spreading across his face. "So you _did _get my messages, you ass. You could have replied sooner."

"I was waiting to say it like this. I love you, Gilbert."

"And I still love you too, Elizaveta. Now c'mon I'm seriously starving. And this has _got _to go on my blog; I can't believe I haven't been online for like two weeks!"

Elizaveta laughed as she walked into her house, Gilbert's arm around her waist. He may not be the most romantic of all people, but seeing him alive was better than anything else. Even when such a disaster had struck America, Elizaveta couldn't help but think she was glad there hadn't been a complete worldwide loss.

**[A/N – This is my first fic, so I'll be happy with some feedback on how to get better at writing! This meant to offend anyone or mock 9/11 as I remember watching this happen on TV.**

**I don't own APH. You'd know if I did because there would be much more of these guys ;) **

**EDIT 2/9/14 – I re-wrote this because 1. As my first fic of course it's not going to be the best, 2. I just thought it was kinda cringe worthy and 3. It still seemed disrespectful to have anime characters in a very real upsetting situation for America? **

**I don't know if the 2****nd**** or 3****rd**** point has improved, probably not, but whatever. For a 'first fic' re-do it's better, but I eventually got bored so I didn't change as much as I would have liked. Also, would Gilbert even have phone signal at all? May as well call this fic **_**How Do I Describe Romantic Stuff? Ft. Lame Tie-in Title**_**.]**


End file.
